From John Adams Minna
It was a mixture of shock, disbelief and fear for the communities of Sanchitagi and Kpadaragi, Pategi Local Government, Kwara State, as they welcomed home Mallama Hawawu Musa, a fashion designer, who was pronounced dead three years ago.
Thirty-four-year-old Hawawu, mother of one and a native of Sanchitagi, was married to Usman Musa, a commercial motorcyclist from Kpandaragi, Tsaragi District, living in Lagos.
Hawawu passed away in 2021 after she fell into a well. Before this time, she had suffered from a strange ailment, which had forced her to relocate from her husband’s home in Kpandaragi to her father’s house in Sanchitagi. Her relocation was for her to get proper medication and care in the absence of her husband.
The illness, it was gathered, might be responsible for her fall into the well while her immediate family and neighbours were away in the farm.
After rigorous search by family and neighbours, her lifeless body was reportedly discovered inside the well at about 8: 00pm on the same day. She was laid to rest the next day according to Islamic rites.
Three years later, the deceased Hawawu made an unexpected reappearance in the community. She walked back home on Wednesday, June 19, 2024, triggering fear and disbelief in the village and beyond.
Her return to the land of the living happened barely three months after her husband, Musa, told Daily Sun that he saw his late wife at Tsaragi after someone alerted him of her presence. He recalled in Hausa language: “Someone from our community (Kpandaragi) had told me that he saw my late wife somewhere in the town, begging for food and money to eat. But I didn’t believe him.”
After much hesitation, he summoned courage and decided to follow the man to the particular spot where he saw her. On getting there, he was shocked to discover that the person there was actually his wife, whom he was told died and buried three years ago:
“I was shocked and afraid to go near her. I returned home and kept it to myself. I didn’t tell any of my relations nor my in-laws about it. I didn’t know what would be their reactions.
“Even though I knew it was my late wife that I saw, how do I tell the people that someone that was pronounced and confirmed dead and buried three years ago was still alive? I didn’t know what to do, but my mind was with her.”
Usman was bailed out of his predicament when a trader in the market where Hawawu goes to beg for food and money, alerted someone in Kpandaragi of his encounter with the supposedly late Hawawu.
Usman: “It was the man that used to give her money to eat almost everyday, because the man said he discovered that anyday he gave her money, he usually experienced good sales but the reverse was the case if he failed to give her money to eat.
“He said he then made it a point of duty to give her money everyday, but had never asked her anything about herself since she didn’t talk to anybody.
“The trader said he was forced to interrogate Hawawu after she was beaten by a heavy rain in her makeshift abode and took ill from severe cold.
“The man took her to the hospital and took care of her. It was there in the hospital that he began to ask her questions about herself. Thank God, she responded and told him that she was from Kpandaragi but her parents were from Sanchitagi village.
“She also told him that she was married to me and she called my exact name and that she had a child called Adamu. But she told the man that she did not know what brought her to the village, as she could not remember anything.
“It was at that point that the trader called someone in my community and told him the story of my late wife. The man contacted my family members and I confessed that I actually saw her, but I didn’t know what to do.
“We got a vehicle and went there. Immediately she saw me, she came and hugged me. I asked her if she knew me, and she said I was her husband and called me by my name. I also asked her of the name of her son and called his name.
“We carried her and went to her father’s house in Sanchitagi. Both her father and mother broke down in tears when they saw her. It was unbelievable to the entire community. Right now she is back in my house.”
Hawawu speaks Hausa, Yoruba and a bit of English language. For now, she could hardly: “When you talk to her she will answer you but she doesn’t initiate a conversation. She receives people and responds to their greetings.
“She is yet to tell me where she had been for the past three years. Gradually, we will get to hear more of her three years in the wilderness. I don’t want to rush her with many questions.
“She cannot cook for now. It is my mother who cooks for the house. We sleep together and there is no problem. We are still watching and praying that nothing changes.
“I thought about her everyday since her departure each time I was alone either in the farm or anywhere. Her dead almost made me went mad. I resisted all attempts to make me marry another wife.”
The strange incident stirred up serious conversations in the farming community with many pondering about how she returned to the land of the living after she was confirmed dead and buried. The community has transformed to a mini tourist- centre.
Nmodu Kpadrgi, a resident of Kpandaragi told Daily Sun: “Everybody in the community is still in shock to see a woman that died and was buried in the presence of everybody appearing again. This is unbelievable. But we have seen it live here in the community.
“This is the first time this type of thing is happening here. She does not behave like a ghost. She relates normally except that she doesn’t talk like before. But when people greet her, she answers them.”
Zainab from Tsaragi where Hawawu took refuge for almost five months, said: “Everybody in this village, especially in the market thought that Hawawu was mad. She would not talk to anybody. She would sit in one place quietly. In the night she would return to where she normally slept in an uncompleted building
“She would only stretch her hand towards people to ask for help. The makeshift abode where she stayed further confirmed the people’s submission that she was a mad woman.
“We were all surprised to hear that she was a dead woman who came back to life. Everybody is in shock here right now. People have been going to that village to see her.”
In the traditions of the Nupe, the possibility of the deceased returning to the life is a belief deeply rooted in cultural lore. It is held that under specific conditions, individuals who pass away from causes deemed unnatural, whether through spiritual or traditional magical means, possess the potential to defy death and return to life.
The history of the community has it that in Gbodoti, a nearby community to the present setting, a dead woman had once returned to life and returned to her home where she spent another four years before her natural demise.
Is history repeating itself? Or, is this another fairy tale of a woman defying death? Time will tell.
